Many irrigation systems indicate failures with respect to their anticipated benefits.
However, improvement of these schemes can be brought about through their
rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of Igomelo
rehabilitated irrigation scheme covering both the performance of irrigation water
distribution systems and the roles of irrigators association.The scheme was divided
into three reaches upper, middle and tail end. Three plots with maize, tomatoes and
onions from each reach were randomly selected. Amount of water entering the plots
were monitored for adequacy, equity, dependability and productivity analysis. Also
three canals each from the mentioned reaches was assessed for seepage,
maintenance and conveyance efficiencies. The IA wasevaluated using indicatorsSADC- ICART
such as structures’ condition, effectiveness in fees collection (EFC) and financial self
sufficiency (FSS). A structured questionnaire was administered in order to obtain
information on irrigation and roles of irrigators association. The conveyance
efficiencies in the main canal were 68.2% with values between 69and 87% for
tertiary canals. Seepage ranging between 0.044 and 0.104l/s per meter lengthwas
also observed in the canals. A SCI of 90% was obtained showing structures in good
working condition.Despite a good FSS (1.10 -2.21) some structures lack some
components. Adequacy in water supply is good with Relative Water Supply (RWS)
between 0.92 and 3.96with highest RWS at the middle reach. However, the
dependability in water supply was low while equity in water supply was observed in
tomato plots than in maize and onions. The output per unitwater supply for tomato
was between 684.4 and 14492.55 US$ha -1 while the highest output per unit water3
supply for tomato and maize were (1.68kg/m 3 )and (0.83kg/m 3 )respectively.
However, not significantly different (p< 0.01). From both the IA and the water
distribution systems the performance of the scheme is good.
SADC- ICART